Setting out to improve on Christianity by recasting it as a science? Claiming the Bible’s real meaning is inaccessible unless unlocked by some hitherto unknown key? What folly; yet I devoted the first half of my life to a little well-intentioned band engaged in that very project. (more…)
Let’s think about becoming a people who don’t keep score on each other, serving a God who doesn’t keep score on us. Imagine a life of grace and love, acceptance and belonging, unshakable security and soulful serenity, joyous freedom and limitless possibilities. (more…)
Two friends of mine, Ty who is a Christian Scientist and Vi who is a biblical Christian, were sparring over why forgiveness isn’t more prominently emphasized in the teachings of Christian Science. I wrote to Ty, remarking that it seems to me the differing perspectives on forgiveness stem from one’s view of what is or is not real, and thus whether we need a Savior or can save ourselves. (more…)
Forgiveness, so crucial in Christianity, receives little attention in the teachings of Christian Science. Why is that, and what are the consequences? The Lord’s Prayer, along with outlining several things we affirm about God and several things we ask God to do, states just one thing that we are to do. (more…)
Do you love God? Do you love Jesus? Do you love the Bible? Do you love the Church? Ask these questions of any Christian Scientist, and he will almost certainly answer yes. (more…)
Josh and his family have been friends of ours for over 40 years. When he was a teenager, I taught his class at the Christian Science Sunday School. It’s always been heavy on my heart that when he and other impressionable kids were spiritually in my care, I fed them CS falsehood instead of Bible truth. (more…)
The magical mantra of our times, “It’s science,” echoes endlessly in the public arena these days. Both sides in the debate over climate change use it. Both sides in the fight over how to stem the coronavirus use it. (more…)
The great Francis Schaeffer coined the term “true truth” to describe that which simply is, always has been, and always will be, whether we like it or not. What a contrast to CS with its variable truth, simultaneously connoting one thing AND its opposite, depending how one looks at it. (more…)
My friend Hal is a lifelong Christian Scientist who is in the very early stages of questioning the Eddy doctrines and losing patience with some aspects of the CS culture. After reading my new book Discovering a Larger God and commenting favorably on it, Hal asked how I as a Bible Christian would go about praying for several situations that are troubling him at present.
C. S. Lewis invites us to imagine a man with a lizard attached to, or actually growing out of, his shoulder. Clinging there, it whispers lies in the man’s ear to keep him out of heaven. An angel, seeing that the poor soul is half-willing to be rid of the lizard, asks his permission to kill it. (more…)
Life is unfair. Bad things happen to good people. Prayer may receive answers we can’t make sense of. Suffering isn’t always explicable. The world is broken. To know all this, and still have faith that God loves us lavishly, is spiritual maturity. (more…)
“You need Jesus. More than anything, you need Jesus. Your whole life depends on it, your whole world.” When I came to accept that this was true and began to make all the changes it would require of me, I was an earnest, fourth-generation Christian Scientist in my late 30s. (more…)
How did Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection utterly transform human experience and change the world forever? By convincing a few dozen of his followers, who then convinced billions down the centuries and around the world, that Jesus was God incarnate and that through his blood believers could enter into eternal life. (more…)
We have a friend who is a very devout Christian Scientist, getting into the practice. Sometimes along with her metaphysical vocabulary she uses a more biblical or traditional phrasing about “trusting the Father” or “listening to the Father,” that kind of thing. Then it’s back to Mrs. Eddy’s synonyms for God—Principle, Mind, Soul, etc. (more…)
“Behold, what manner of love.” These words from the Epistle of John are etched on the memory of anyone who spent years attending the Christian Science church. (more…)
A hundred years ago in London, a drug addict named Francis Thompson escaped from the jaws of hell when he found Jesus Christ. Or to be more exact, when Jesus Christ found him. (more…)
Ten of us who serve as elders at my Presbyterian church were stationed around the sanctuary after today’s sermon to pray with anyone who wanted to accept or renew a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. (more…)
“Do you ever get to church?” I’m talking with Chip, a young guy in his late 20s, son of a Christian Science family I’ve known forever. No, he says, he never does, since having decided several years ago CS is not for him — but lately he has felt there’s something spiritually missing in his life, maybe it’s time to look around.
Recently a friend asked me to attend her Christian Science church service. The Bible lesson was on “Doctrine of Atonement.” Twice a year for forty years, prior to leaving Science, (more…)